The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Bertil Lintner  CHIANG MAI - A mass movement is spreading across Myanmar on a scale not seen since tens of thousands of Buddhist monks led anti-government demonstrations in 2007 and the massive nationwide pro-democracy uprising against the old military regime in 1988. This time the mobilizing force is a by-election contested by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party to fill 48 seats in parliamentary bodies currently dominated by military aligned representatives. 

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Local people from Maungdaw fear for their daily life struggle after sole agents tenders were announced on March 3 , said a trader  from Maungdaw. “The tender price is more than twice than last year and the sole agents will collect more their fee on consumers’ goods and daily life of people.”

By Maung Rammer  ----------------------- Kyauk Pru: The National League for Democracy (NLD) has opened a branch office in Kyaukpru, a township in southern Arakan state, on 26 February. This is the sixth township office the NLD has re-opened in Arakan State since it re-registered with the union election commission as a political party. The acting Chairman of NLD of Arakan State, U Maung Krun Aung, inaugurated the office opening ceremony and addressed the opening speech in the ceremony.  “We have opened our offices here in order to increase the support of the people to our party so that we can work out our main policy of developing democracy for the people of our country”, said U Maung Krun Aung.

In February last the Mugs, or Aaracaners, carried off from the most southern parts of Bengal, about 1800 men, women, and children; they arrived at Aracan (according to the Persian orthography, Rekheng) after a voyage often days. Upon their arrival they were conducted to the rajah; or sovereign of the country, who chose from among them for his slaves all the handicraftsmen and most use­ful persons, amounting to about one-fourth of the whole number; the rest he returned to the captors, who conducted them, by ropes about their necks, to a market, and there sold them from twenty to seventy rupees each, according to their strength, abilities, etc. The purchasers assigned them the cultivation of their lands, and other laborious employments, giving each person, for his monthly support, only fifteen seers1 of rice. For more detail,  please click here

By: Christian N. Desrosiers After hustling myself out of the city center across a handful of muddy fields, I entered a low wooden building where an elderly imam was waiting for me. His beard was dyed orange in the manner of the Prophet, and it stood out strongly against his skin, dark as rich soil. We spoke in low tones. Secrecy was necessary: if we were caught meeting by one of the many informants in his community it would be bad for me and worse for him. He is a member of a group that Refugees International has dubbed "one of the most persecuted groups in the world."

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Maungdaw Township administration officer ordered village administration officers to follow the restrictions while issuing permission to build the house in Maungdaw at monthly village administration officers meeting in Township administration office, said a village administration officer.

Children of Burmese migrants at a community school in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Patrick Boehler / Irrawaddy) While a controversial government amnesty program for illegal migrants in Malaysia is expected to run out next month, a similar scheme may soon affect  tens of thousands of Burmese refugees in the nation. The so-called “6P” scheme was introduced by the Malaysian authorities last summer to biometrically register and legalize illegal foreign workers, but most Burmese refugees were not eligible for the amnesty program.